Yet it was foolish to take her with me; I might have foretold how it would be.  I saw very soon that she pined for him, perhaps as much as I did.  And I knew that he wandered to and fro at home, meeting her thoughts with his.  I brought her back as soon as I could.  Gabriel met us at the station; the engine shrieked, as I did in my heart.  It was a strange mingling of the Heaven of my life with the sordid greyness of the world.  I saw at once that there was a change; I had parted them and taught them what each was worth to the other.

So now I know.  It is well, perhaps, to have reached the end, the limit of misery, to know that, come what may, I have suffered my fill.  And I was so happy.  I cannot think to-night; I know not what to do; I stare at my dead joy,—­it is dead and cold, nothing can wake it now.  When I have stared a little longer, I must dig its grave, bury it in the bare earth, in eternal darkness.

That is all I feel, the death of my joy; I cannot yet think of them that killed it.

To-night in my despair I cannot tell whether I love or hate them; love them for what they were, or hate them for what they are.

July 2d.—­The day is hot and heavy; it suits me very well.  Yesterday we were nearly all day together.  I remember how it was with me when my mother died; I had sooner bear it again than my pain of every day.  To be with them, watching the growth of their terrible love, that is murdering me, and yet to stay on, fearing a worse agony.  Their eyes shall never meet; I shall stay and watch them, if I die for it.

Only thirteen days more and he is mine, and I can bear him from her.  Yesterday I thought, Shall I give him to her?  But I am not generous.  It may be wicked, it may be cruel, but I, too, am living.  Why should I break my heart that theirs may be whole?  No; he chose me for his wife, he will not take his word from me.  I know he loves her better, but he will forget that, I shall make him so happy, I shall spoil him so!  Oh, yes, he will forget.  For a year, perhaps, he will be unhappy; then all will be well.

It might be different if I did not know how happy I can make him.

July 3d.—­Let me write it down, all my infamy.  I am possessed by a new fear,—­that Gabriel might prove honest.  It is not true that trouble chasteneth; there is no health left in me.  If I clear all the cobwebs away, I still can see the right.  I can see this:  that he loves her better than me, and I remember our covenant.

I know that it is my duty to go to him and lay his freedom in his hands; or, barring this, to await the truth from his own lips.  Yet now, when I am alone with him, I am possessed by this terrible new fear, that he might be true to his own self and me.  For to marry one woman and love another is a shameful act indeed.

Let me look upon my love and ask myself whereof it is made.  If I seek to have this man, knowing his heart to be another’s, if I desire for him rather the silence of cowardice than the nobler loyalty of truth, why, then, my love is not good love.  It is not love, but a most unholy passion, that places its desire above the well-being of its object.  And yet I can see the right.